


Hope

by Lady_of_Greenwood



Category: Tales of Berseria, Tales of Zestiria
Genre: M/M, Think Piece
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-21
Updated: 2018-11-21
Packaged: 2019-08-27 05:06:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16695985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_of_Greenwood/pseuds/Lady_of_Greenwood
Summary: Zaveid had only been in love twice.





	Hope

Though few people would believe him, Zaveid had actually only been in love - truly, deeply, completely in love - twice in his long life.

The first time was Theodora and it had hit him like a boulder to the stomach. Her love for all living things and her generosity, her surprising strength and stubbornness, her determination to help those who couldn't help themselves...she had been a brilliant light for someone adrift in a world where barely anyone could see him.

So when Theodora had finally succumbed to the children's malevolence it had been enough to nearly break him. He had tried to bring her back any way he could think of but nothing had shown even the slightest chance of success.

Around that time he also met the Malak - Seraph - who would become his second love.

With Eizen it happened slowly. Eizen was everything Theodora was not; he was rough and cold, prone to violence and rained death down upon his enemies. He didn't much care for the people outside his inner circle and collateral damage was just something that happened.

They had clashed horribly, and if not for Aifread and Eizen's stubborn insistence to kill Theodora, Zaveid would have been happy to stay as far away from the grumpy first mate as possible.

Until he learned just why Eizen was so adamant about everything he did.

The constant threat of becoming a dragon let him see Theodora's fate with different eyes, let him understand it on a deeper level than Zaveid, and that in turn showed Zaveid a side of Eizen he had never expected to see: the merciful grim reaper who carried suffering souls into the light.

The promise to kill him when the time came was an easy one then.

Zaveid should have known that it wouldn't stay easy. Just knowing the burden Eizen chose to bear alone kept bringing Zaveid back to him, to drink, to travel, to let off steam by throwing a few good punches...really, he should've seen it coming.

Still, when one day he followed a way too enthusiastic Eizen into some ruin or another, it hit him that at some point the memory of Theodora's smile had been replaced by that of Eizen as his source of warmth and strength.

Which made his promise all the more ironic and so, so hard to fulfill.

He would never tell Edna this but...he'd had every opportunity to kill Eizen when he turned and just...hadn't. His finger couldn't pull the trigger, his heart wasn't done bleeding yet.

First Theodora, now Eizen...sometimes he wondered if he wasn't the one who was cursed instead of Eizen.

So he did what he'd done when Theodora had turned so long ago. He flirted with everything that had legs and pretended that he wasn't suffering from an old wound torn open by someone new. Because everything was better than remembering the two people he'd lost his heart to only to have it returned in pieces.

He was so tired of hurting. Maybe that was why he agreed to the little Shepherd's request...maybe that was why he didn't try harder to fulfill his promise. He was tired and hoping against hope for...well, hope.

Yeah, that must be it. That must be why he was here now, sitting next to Edna before a campfire, watching Sorey and Mik-bou pour over that dumb book of theirs, Rose and Lailah chatting a few feet away.

He sighed through his nose and ignored Edna's questioning look - he ignored a lot of her looks, too much like Eizen's to not hurt like a burning blade - to shove a hand into his pocket.

The cold metal of a single golden coin pressed into his palm, a nostalgic weight between his fingers that reminded him why he wanted to trust this kid so desperately.

Maybe...just maybe he could be the one to...

Maybe this Shepherd could do what Zaveid couldn't and save someone who actually deserved to be saved.

For that, Zaveid the Oathkeeper would become an Oathbreaker faster than the northern wind could blow.

For that, Zaveid was willing to wager everything.

Because even if he knew that Eizen had been right, that death could be salvation, one stubborn part of himself clung to any straw it could find.

One stubborn part of himself still believed in hope.

**Author's Note:**

> I was tryna take a nap...instead this happened...


End file.
